Banff Mountain Book Festival 2006

Thursday , November 2, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m.

Kathryn Bridge — A Passion for the Mountains: The Lives of Don and Phyllis Munday

Victoria-based archivist and historian Kathryn Bridge knows how to tell a good story. Her award-winning books about pioneering personalities rely on original diaries, letters, journals, and historical photos to bring the biographies to life. Her interest in the mountains began when she played in the alpine meadows of Mount Revelstoke as a child.

Bridge will speak about her new biography, A Passion for Mountains: The Lives of Don and Phyllis Munday. The Mundays are western Canada’s most famous mountaineering couple. Active members of The Alpine Club of Canada, they climbed for almost four decades throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as in the Selkirks and the Rocky Mountains.

The Mundays are known for their tenacity, their environmental awareness, and their scientific contributions in exploring and documenting the little-known Coast Mountains, including Mount Waddington (the highest mountain wholly within British Columbia), which they ascended in 1928. Their joint climbs from the 1920s through the 1940s included scaling over 100 peaks, of which more than 25 represented first ascents.

During their adventures, the Mundays took thousands of photographs, drew maps, and kept careful records of their climbing and exploration adventures. A Passion for Mountains features a broad selection of their photographs and maps, and incorporates their own words to describe most of their ascents. This lifelong adventure story will be enjoyed by climbers and non-climbers alike.

Kathryn Bridge will be signing books after the presentation and on the weekend of the film festival.

“Bridge puts history into context, making stories more meaningful for readers.”

— BC Historical Federation

“An excellent way to be educated and entertained at the same time.”

— Focus magazine